Saturday PM General Conference: Since Jimmer’s Not Playing Today, Let’s Watch Conference!

Welcome back to By Common Consent’s live coverage of the 181th Annual General Conference, live from Hurricane, Utah! Don’t forget to check out our minute-by-minute coverage on Twitter in addition to coverage on the blog. We also encourage you to (if you’re not already doing so) watch Conference live, streaming from LDS.org.

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Official Over/Under on mentions of “Jimmer” has been set at 17 for this session. Please place your bets accordingly, brothers and sisters.

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Choir in jewel tones, but sounds good anyway.

First Presidency just seated.

Bummer–same tie.

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BHodges here. Had some problems with the wifi but I’m up and running.President Boyd K. Packer starts out with recognition for the King James Version of the Bible. It’s the book’s 400th anniversary. A recent symposium at BYU focused on the KJV. A recent episode of “Mormon Stories” including Kristine Haglund and Phil Barlow has gone missing, but it was an interesting look at the KJV by a few modern Mormons. LDSmediatalk had a nice collective link post on the KJV here.

President Packer interestingly tips the cap to William Tyndale as “a great hero.”

President Packer interestingly tips the cap to William Tyndale as “a great hero,” and the sufferer of a “martyr’s death.” These are interesting descriptions for a reformer who lived during the “Great Apostasy,” acknowledging inspired actions despite an absence of Priesthood authority. Pres. Packer distinguishes the apostasy by “The authority and power to administer had to be restored.”

He emphasizes revelation and the Holy Ghost as things non-Mormons should take into account when thinking about what Mormons believe. This explains the Word of Wisdom, as well as “the Lord’s standard of morality.” Reaffirming the “sacred powers to beget life” be confined to husband and wife, he refers to the Book of Mormon verse which seems to place sexual sin as “next to murder.” An interesting analysis of this Book of Mormon selection is Michael R. Ash, “The Sin Next to Murder: An Alternate Interpretation,” Sunstone, 2006, p. 34-43.

After discussing marriage and sex he switches to a discussion about forgiveness, an interesting move.

“John, leave it alone” is a story Pres. Packer has shared before. See, for example, “Balm of Gilead,” Ensign Nov. 1987.

Elder Cecil O. Samuelson is talking about testimony, and struggles of faith. “Their questions are usually the result of honest inquiry or curiosity,” as opposed to being sinners. Not to be overly-self-promotional, I wrote about this sort of thing in my review of Shawn McCraney’s “Born-Again Mormon” book. See the subsection “They Leave the Church but Can’t Leave it Alone.”

The renowned Louis Midgley just published an interesting blog post over at FAIR called “‘Having’ a Testimony?”

He says a testimony grows and needs protection. Neglect or deviance from the path can lead to loss of the Spirit and the denial of testimony. See my review of McCraney linked above where I offer some critique of that view.

He refers us to Alma 32, a wonderful selection from the Book of Mormon where the word is compared to a seed. This is an especially interesting sermon considering Alma’s own conversion to Christ, which occurred after an encounter with an angel.

Elder Samuelson employs scripture to help affirm the fact that people need not know everything. Blind spots in our faith are not, presumably, simply the result of sin it seems. “I do not know the meaning of all things,” like Nephi and Mormon “of old” [love that ‘of old’ thing].

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Elder Dallin H. Oaks desires to speak about desire. Like his talk, “Good, Better, and Best,” he is drawing a hierarchy of needs, some lesser, some greater. See also his book,Pure in Heart, p. 52. Note also the continued emphasis of the word “becoming,” which is a continuing theme for Elder Oaks. See “The Challenge to Become.”

Elder Oaks’s story about the battalion of Mormons came from personal notes he wrote in 1985 of an interview with Ray Cox.

Danny Boyle recently directed the film 127 Hours about the true story of Ralston, whom Oaks discussed. James Franco loves it.

“Active love. It is not manifested through large and heroic deeds, but rather through simple acts of kindness and service.”

Elder Ballard remembers his old friend Elder Wirthlin, who passed away in 2008, by referring to his conference address “The Virtue of Kindness.”

Emphasis on service by missionaries and members; the “spirit of charitable service” will make others want to know more about the Church.

*Easter reference alert.* (the first direct reference today?) Elder Ballard recommends that “as we approach the Easter season” we “show our love and appreciation for the Savior’s atoning sacrifice through our simple, compassionate acts of service to our brothers and sisters at home, at church, and in our communities.”

Here are the verses of “Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise” that aren’t in the hymnal. I want them all back in–never too many repetitions of ELLACOMBE :)

3. But ere that great and solemn day,
The stars from heav’n will fall,
The moon be turned into blood,
The waters into gall,
The sun with blackness will be clothed,
All nature look affright!
While men, rebellious wicked men,
Gaze heedless on the sight.

4. The earth shall reel, the heavens shake,
The sea move to the north,
The earth roll up like as a scroll,
When God’s command goes forth;
The mountains sink, the valleys rise,
And all become a plain,
The islands and the continents
Will then unite again.

5. Alas! the day will then arrive,
When rebels to God’s grace,
Will call for rocks to fall on them,
And hide them from his face:
Not so with those who keep his law,
They joy to meet their Lord
In clouds above, with them that slept
In Christ, their sure reward.

7. Then when the thousand years are past,
And Satan is unbound,
O Lord preserve us from his grasp,
By fire from heav’n sent down,
Until our great last change shall come,
T’imortalize this clay,
Then we in the celestial world,
Will spend eternal day.

Comments

If you tell me where to send it, I’ll send you a nice photo from our morning session of kids hovered around the candy bowl waiting for the speaker to say LOVE.

The word of the session for the afternoon session has not yet been determined, but there will also be some MUCH LESS LIKELY to be used words available for future sessions that will win the first to identify a LARGE, half pound candy bar. Words like HAGOTH, RAMEUMPTON, KOLOB, and the like.

Chad — re #4, we have wondered the same thing. I can’t help but think that Priesthood meeting would have been postponed, or cancelled. Or at least have hoped. I would have had to watched one later, and I’m afraid it wouldn’t have been the basketball game.

I remember the year that BYU played San Diego State in a football game and Pres. Hinckley ended the Priesthood session early. It was awesome. It was during my mission and we actually got permission to watch the game.

Doesn’t have President Uchtdorf do so much conducting go against the counsel to “strengthen the feeble knees”?? Imagine all the knee strengthening that could occur if Pres. Monson and Pres. Eyring got up more often.

He seems to be saying that all sexual temptation (particularly including, I suppose based on his context, homosexuality) can be overcome with effort toward marriage or celibacy. Serious change from his last talk (at least the original form). Yay :)

AMEN to President Packer’s emphasis on using full name of church and “latter-day saint” as opposed to “mormon.” So why does church website have “mormon in so many places, why does church-owned Deseret News publish “Mormon Times” instead of “Latter-day Saint Times,” and why the emphasis on “I am a Mormon” web clips from members instead of “I am a Latter-day Saint”?

There’s an article currently on DesNews.com that explains that the Church uses “Mormon” all over lds.org because that’s the term people type into Google, and the church wants them landing on our website.

#84 Clair, you know it. As much as the old talks by Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph Fielding Smith were sometimes militant and divisive, it was always interesting to wonder what was coming next and great that they felt free to speak their true beliefs.

I think (and I’m willing to be wrong here) that the theme in this talk is that it is reactive to the responses to his last talk. Those responses referenced “mormonism” and “mormon apostle Boyd Packer” and were offended by his statements. In this talk, Packer is saying “it’s ‘LDS,’ and if you were offended, ‘leave it alone.'” He then expanded both topics to make the talk longer and more applicable to every church member rather that just the offended ones.

It would be easier to celebrate the “freedom” of G.A.s to say whatever they heck they want if we lived in a world where vast quantities of LDS listeners weren’t interpreting every stray comment as a formal doctrinal pronouncement of the Church, set in stone for all eternity and made available as a weapon to beat other churchmembers over the head with.

He’s pulling together a lot of random themes from his past talks and sort of mashing them together into one address. You get that kind of approach a lot from the Apostles in severely advanced age. They have a hard time sustaining a concise narrative and tend to ramble. His isn’t the most pronounced case I’ve seen from the pulpit though.

CAMERON — #96 — I just sent Scott a non photo-shopped photo during Elder Anderson’s talk this morning that shows my kids and their cousins hovering around the candy bowl awaiting the word of the session.

Is it just me or did it seem like this was President Packers attempt to apologize for his last address? Sadly “Leave it alone” doesn’t always work but I sure hope it does this time. As someone who railed against President Packer 6 months ago I think that his return to a form of apology (if not truly an apology) is admirable.

I think Elder Nelson is speaking more to those who teach that the cafeteria approach is acceptable. Sure, we’re all going to pick and choose, but we run into trouble when start teaching it is acceptable. Not to mention it is contrary to the “be ye therefore perfect” edict.

How many “Cafeteria Mormons” understand themselves as being selectively obedient to God’s commands? I suspect most Mormons understand themselves as being obedient to things that really matter, and only disobedient to things that don’t.

In other words, I suspect non-compliance is probably more often a function of confusion about the authoritativeness of specific rules than it is of an attitude that says, “I don’t need to be obedient to unambiguously authoritative rules.”

Remember when the current speaker (I totally missed his name, I have to admit) said something about an unprecedented attack on the family? It came out kind of like “unpresidented.” I think he’s subtly hinting that he is an Obama supporter.

Given how much we venerate the General Authorities, why can’t we start aping their practice of NOT beginning our talks with stupid anecdotes about the circumstances under which we were assigned our talk topics?

It seems this time around (or maybe for the first time ever I’m actually paying enough attention to remember) a lot of the key words being listed on the twitter feed is pretty common sense. Are most GCs like this?

175 – I think he was saying they won’t remember the specifics. This is a common theme of teaching youth: they may not remember exactly what you said, but they will remember how they felt when you said it.

@189 — I’m taking a lot of experimental design classes at BYU this semester, and because of that I now think the same thing. “Oh, sure, it’s an experiment, but is it reliable? How much error is involved? What research metric should we use to measure the response we receive? What’s the Crohnbach’s alpha?”

#194: As a psychometric researcher, I suspect that the Cronbach’s alpha of “testing the word” wouldn’t be high enough meet acceptable psychometric standards…problem is, the result of the testing is sometimes (maybe most of the time) not immediate.

We ARE currently sending missionaries to Russia. One of the YM in our word just left the MTC to go there this past week.

My mission is one that was recently consolidated. I served in the Illinois CHicago Mission, which was later split into two missions — North and South. It was consolidated this past year back into a single mission.

I think the church should re-institute plural marriage so women can be lucky enough to marry manly-god-fearing-men like Wynn and not be so unlucky as to have to marry someone who occasionally plays Halo and Call of Duty.

More emphasis on reaching out in service to those outside our faith. Love this. Especially the mention of being directed by the spirit to know who is in need of help. We don’t often talk of this in terms outside our wards/church stewardship. Awesome.

I find it interesting that President Uchtdorf has yet to speak. It seems that generally each of the counselors speaks once during the Saturday general sessions and the whole First Presidency speaks in PH meeting.

I interrupt this program to report that given a choice between (1) the 181st Annual LDS General Conference; and (2) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, my 5 yo daughter has made her preference clear.

If the Brethren want to compete, they’re going to need wear snazzier outfits.

“These are interesting descriptions for a reformer who lived during the “Great Apostasy”

Why do so many LDS get caught into the same trap that an Apostasy means people are evil or something and not worthy of praise. I’m not saying you believe that, but you seem to be painting your same brothers and sisters with the assumption that they do. It’s just not true. It’s the same twisted anti-mormon logic that try to use God’s words against the church.

If the assumptions were true, Joseph and all the first Later-day saints would be an abomination. If it were true we wouldn’t view hymns written by many non-Later-day Saints as descriptive. Some of our most holy hymns were inspired of God, as was the KJV, and they did not have the priesthood. This should not be a shock, but why do we portray it as though it is? I don’t think it is and I don’t think most LDS bat an eye at it.

We’re not those kind of people who tell other’s God does not listen or answer the “unbelievers” prayer. The strength of the Mormon position is we can see the divinity and inspiration in many individuals and faiths.